Frugal GM Review: Far Away Land Quickstart Rules

I was on a mini-vacation at the end of last week and "missed" the unveiling of the free Far Away Land Quickstart Rules.

Far Away Land uses (some) similar mechanics to the free  Lunch Box Heroes game Matt Jackson and I put together last year, but the similarities end pretty damned quick. FAL uses a d6 (as d2's, d3's and d6's) mechanic, some simple rules, and a lot of GM & player flexibility.

I've been saving my pennies and nickles to buy me a copy of this game. It's been on sale for some time and it would be a shame not to get a printed copy as opposed to a PDF. Now I'm usually a fan of PDF gaming resources, but there is a lot of great colors and art in this game reminiscent of Adventure Time, but distinctly different.

This great art has it's place in the soft/hard cover editions of the full game, but I think it is a detraction for the Quickstart Rules. The PDF is sized 5.5" x 8.5", which looks pretty good on a tablet, but just begs to be printed out. For something that is basically a teaser for the rules of a game (ideally used once then tossed aside when you buy the full game) I'd have appreciated black and white graphics, preferably line art. I don't think it would have detracted from the overall appearance any. The PDF is 33 pages, which is an odd amount considering if you did print it out you could go booklet printing and get this on eight pages of paper easy if you skip the last page which is just a solid red with the publishers small logo at the bottom. I'd have preferred the full-color cover followed by the black & white line art cover so I could just print pages 2-33 in booklet form and be done with it.

At first I wasn't entirely thrilled that the sample adventure included was part of the Quickstart, but that was because I was in the mindset that you'd print off one of these for every player and the GM. After reading the rules I think the average group could get by with a single copy and maybe print off an extra sheet or two as needed, like the equipment or spells pages. There is a PC sheet too, but I preferred to go to the FAL website to get the PDF-fillable version.

The bulk of the Quickstart rules cover character creation & combat. Combat seems quite easy to me if you get the underlying mechanics, which make character creation (the source for the mechanics' numbers) a bit more important. I do have to say that Dirk & Vince did a good job of giving me "just enough" to get a character started. I made up one PC that didn't quite fit in with what I was reading, but thought fit in the spirit of the rules. This really makes me want to get the main rules even more...

.....which is kind of the main point of any Quickstart....

I'm hoping to be able to run some PCs through the included adventure,  "Isle of the Rat Wizard" not the next game session, but the one after that when we are down a player. I'll do a quick update after that session.

Free GM Resource: Free RPG! (Lamentations of the Flame Princess in two versions)

Today's Free GM Resource is another RPG game, served up one of two ways.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is labeled a "Weird Fantasy" RPG and is available for only $5 at DriveThruRPG. If you're on the fence about the game you can check it out for free from their website.

There are two different versions. The 1st, at the bottom of the downloads page, is the previous "Deluxe Version" and the other is the "Grindhouse Rules", with the latter just being an art-less version of the current rules. The Grindhouse rules is also a single book, where the Deluxe version is a few more pages spread out over two books.

I've reviewed at least one LotFP adventure before and while I'm not sold on the system as a whole, I think it is definitely worth picking up to add in a few elements to your game. Of course, this pretty much works as a blanket statement from me.

Frugal GM Review: Goldmarsh Village from Lupus Rex Games

I chose this week's review item in a bit of a circuitous fashion after doing some link-hopping on DriveThruRPG. Somehow I had gotten to Lupus Rex Games and noticed that they had a rather abysmal 1 star rating.

Being all-too-familiar with the fact that so few people actually rate products on DriveThruRPG, must lest leave a review, I went ahead and looked into this. Yep, only one review total and the purchaser didn't like the product. While I get the reviewer's point, to be fair the publisher did provide (in my opinion) an ample preview so a purchaser should have known what they were getting. Of course the preview settings could have been changed after that review.

It occurred to me that right off the bat Lupus Rex Games could have easily made a few tweaks to make that one product much better.....but since that isn't what I purchased for review I'll stick a pin in that comment for now.

Free GM Resource: RPG Downloads from Corey Ryan Walden

Now I don't know about you, but when I find out I have a new social media follower I tend to "look them up" to see what our common interests are and whatnot.

I'm sure some of you are so insanely popular and/or busy you simply don't have the time to do this, but the rest of us can afford this luxury. I'm glad I do because I was able to discover a new Free GM Resource.

Corey Ryan Walden has a rather simple self-titled blog where he writes about his game mostly, but he has also written an adventure, a small city setting, and done up a few maps.

What I really like is that he's put these resources in an easy to find location on his blog ("downloads"). Too often these little gems are hidden until the author gets a decent number produced and then maybe they get organized into an easy-to find manner.

Thanks Corey, I hope you continue writing!

New Frugal GM PWYW Product: HackMaster GM Battlemat

After a brief detour to help work on someone else's RPG project I was able to finish up my HackMaster GM Battlemat and put it up on DriveThruRPG.

I know that maybe only one of my 12 regular readers might find this product useful, but I think it fills an important role if you happen to run games of the current edition of HackMaster.

I've tried multiple ways of running combats and while I think a computer program did the best I've been doing what I can to eschew..... "vertical" obstructions between me and my players. My iPad is reserved for looking things up and the occasional sound effect (I'm working on that one) and the laptop stays off the table.

Frugal GM Review: Dyson's Delves II

Last month I recommended Dyson's Delves II when it was the Deal of the Day over at DriveThruRPG. Of course I had to put my money where my mouth is and pick up a copy for myself.

Overall I was quite pleased with the purchase and I'm busy trying to tweak the PDF a bit into a more desirable print format so I can keep it in my gaming bag as part of my "go-to" gaming kit. I can do this because Dyson didn't put any security on the PDF.

THANK YOU DYSON!

Work-in-Progress: HackMaster "GM Battlemat"

With the Origins Game Fair a quick month away I realized I have to get some of my....."stuff" together for this big convention. I've been to both Origins and GenCon a couple of times, but it is Origins that brings me back year after year......

Part of it is the city, but I just have more fun at Origins and it feels to me like the convention really wants me to have fun, where GenCon has always felt like a hand in my wallet.

I've organized events at both conventions and the experience on that end is night & day....

...anyway, I'm assuming I might be GMing HackMaster and I have to be prepared for some bigger battles. My home group had a HUGE battle our last session and I tested a possible solution to make things easier for me as a GM. It worked out only "OK", but a major limitation was my design.....I only had about an hour of prep time and a local printer.

Since I have a month, and access to some professional printing, I've decided to take another stab at this "GM Battlemat" that I'm going to use at Origins. The key idea is to cram a lot of combatants stats in a small space, but more importantly, line a counter up so I can quickly & easily scan down a line to see who goes on any given count.

Now this WIP picture is hideous...and it should be at the stage I'm at.

Free GM Resource: Barbarians of Lemuria

Continuing with the recent theme I have another rules-lite RPG. This one, Barbarians of Lemuria, hearkens back to the age of pulp fiction with the likes of Appendix N writer Lin Carter.

Set in the world of Thongar the Barbarian, which was the protagonist of a series of books and some Marvel comics, Barbarians of Lemuria is a 43 page PDF that covers player's handbook, GM book, sourcebooks....everything. There is an ancillary document that is barely more than a page which adds two more "stats" for the game and there are a couple of PC sheets.

If you fancy a Conan-ish rules-light game and don't mind learning the background of the setting, which seems to be an integral part of the game, then you might want to pick up the Barbarians of Lemuria. I was particularly impressed by the simplicity of the magic system.